Life and Photography from The Broadneck Peninsula

October 11, 2010October 10, 2010

The Link to the World

Like a scene from an old west movie the story line in Chincoteague these days is “Move over, there’s a new sheriff in town”. Except they aren’t talking about the mid-term elections they are speaking about the “new” bridge from mainland Accomac County onto the island of Chincoteague. The new bridge is directly behind me about 200 yards from this vantage point. What you are looking at is the “old” bridge onto the island.

The bridge pictured above was the first easily accessible link to the island. Constructed sometime in the early 1920’s it brought people to the island, people that couldn’t access the island beforehand. Prior to it’s construction you could only access the island by boat. When I was taking this photo someone walked past me on the boardwalk and said that this bridge was actually moved here from someplace in New Jersey. I can’t validate that, so if any reader knows the story please let me know so I can update the post. In many ways I feel I got here to Chincoteague for the first time at the exact right time. This bridge is slated to be demolished soon. So if I were to have come here this time next year it would be gone.

The shot itself is a 30 second/F16/ISO400 shot from the boardwalk in front of our hotel, Comfort Suites. It’s been run through some post processing in Picasa because I didn’t have access on my laptop to the programs I usually use at home. I would have stayed on the dock longer but I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes. So the lesson learned in this photograph would be to keep some “OFF” in your camera bag.

Our visit to Chincoteague Island will culminate tomorrow (Monday) with a tour around the island via Pontoon Boat. We are looking forward to this cruise. This “mini-vacay” has been delivered on it’s promise to be a kid friendly get away, close to home, and someplace providing an abundance of photo opportunities. This week’s posts will be from the trip, I hope you enjoy what my camera captured.